Tennischick's Articles – January 2010 Archive (8)

I have a slight headache. This always happens to me after a Slam is over. It’s part sleep deprivation and part the winding down from days of over-excitement. I will sleep like a baby tonight. And because both Serena and Roger won, tonight I will have sweet dreams of symmetry and balance...

This article isn’t easy for me to write because more than loving Rafael Nadal, I also tremendously respect him. I respect his hard-assed determination, his bull-like persistence when playing a tennis. I like that he thinks for himself, rarely looks up at his box as his mind whizzes along, coming up with strategies and calculations to help him figure out how to crush his… Continue

...One of the factors that makes the great players great is their ability to deconstruct their opponent’s game plan, and then make adjustments in their own game to deflate the other’s effectiveness. Pete Sampras is one of the greatest ever because of his ability to analyze his opponent and then make his move. Sampras was so brilliant at this that he made it look… Continue

So this is my way of saying that I don’t understand the corporate mind. In the same way that I do not understand how corporations could have miscalculated so badly on the Tiger Woods brand, I do not get why Nike thinks that today’s Sharapova is worth 75 million dollars. And if you watched her match against Kirilenko yesterday, you saw everything that is currently wrong with… Continue

...It’s gotten so that you can sometimes have a hard time telling who’s really hurting and who is pretending to hurt. It’s unfair to pick on them because they are not the only ones, but certainly both Del Potro and Almagro are among the players who have been accused by many of playing unfairly. Almagro famously took a medical time out for leg cramping just before serving to… Continue

Yesterday while watching the Sydney finals between Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva, it occurred to me that these women have a future market in producing instructional tennis tapes if they wish. It’s incredible the degree to which their rivalry produces consistently high quality and creative tennis. They have faced each other 11 times in their career, with Serena having… Continue

...Not to be outdone, 15-year-old Laura Robson did her part to try to bring the Hopman Cup home to England, defeating Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in straight sets. After her sweet interview, Robson looked on expectantly as Andy Murray took on Tommy Robredo. So confident was I that Murray would win that match that I stopped watching after he closed out the first set 6-1.… Continue

There was a time when I used to completely ignore the results of exhibitions matches. I’m talking about the era of players like Anna Kournikova who had the ability to attract hordes to her matches. Her opponents would invariably throw her some fluff balls so that she would not look like a complete moron. Pretty much the way she is now treated during Arthur Ashe Children’s Day… Continue